In the music video to Banjo or Freakout’s “Upside Down” an Indian, a football player, a guy in a chicken suit, an angel, a solider, a Playmate bunny, a man covered in blue paint, and the Grim Reaper are all seen running and jumping into the ocean in slow motion. It’s a striking sequence and the band’s music has a surreal, transcendental quality that fits those images perfectly. Banjo or Freakout is the moniker to Alessio Natalizia, a London-based bedroom-pop artist who’s made a name for himself on the internet by covering artists from Burial to LCD Soundsystem to Vampire Weekend.
Pop Tarts Suck Toasted give us their take on the top tracks of 2008 from Estelle to No Age
And so we’ve reached the end of this year’s journey through my top albums. Before we get into the top eight, I’ll try to sum up which albums released in the last few months of 2008. September brought offerings from Jenny Lewis, Mercury Rev, People in Planes, Butch Walker, No and the Maybes, Glasvegas, Santogold, Jon Ryman, Metallica, Chairlift, Kings of Leon, and a sophomore record from former Suede frontman, Brett Anderson. There were also a few that have already made this countdown, including TV on the Radio, Ladyhawke, and Okkervil River.
October’s albums was jam-packed with records from Empire of the Sun, Department of Eagles, The Sea and Cake, Eugene McGuinness, Of Montreal, Kaiser Chiefs, Keane, Euros Childs, Bloc Party (the physical version), Los Campesinos!, and AC/DC with their long-awaited return. There were also a couple of disappointments from The Cure and Cold War Kids. Snow Patrol demonstrated that they couldn’t compete with Chasing Cars while Oasis produced another unneccessary album. And there were several antlered mammals afoot with releases from Deerhoof, Deerhunter, and The Dears. Again, there were several released in October that you’ve already seen in this series, namely, from Simon Bookish, Maps of Norway, Polarkreis 18, and Twig.
November saw records from We Are Standard, Glass Candy, Razorlight, Threatmantics, Max Tundra, Thieves Like Us, Kanye West, and The Killers. Of course November was also the momentous occasion of Guns ‘n Roses’ Chinese Democracy. I apologize, but as the year wound down, I didn’t note any albums released in December except for an inexplicably successful comeback from Britney Spears.
Typically, rap videos aren’t anything I write home about, though I do harbor a secret envy of sweet dance moves. The video for "Pro Nails" featuring Kanye West is actually what got me into the track, thanks to the close-up fingertip break dancing (complete with miniature shoes!). I daresay the sequence is cute…icle. Definitely too entertaining to watch in secret.
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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